Ky. dealership owner and salesman charged with rolling back odometers on used cars

The owner and a salesman at a used car dealership in Owensboro have been arrested and charged for rolling back odometers on vehicles they were reselling, police say.

Owensboro police said in a news release that they launched an investigation into Discount Motors after receiving information about the alleged criminal activity in February. They said they found that Eddie Howard, 63, the dealership owner, and Donald Adams, 60, a salesman, were working together to use “electronic devices to commit multiple acts of fraud.”

Owensboro police, along with federal and state agencies, executed a search warrant at the Daviess County dealership on Thursday and seized about $350,000 in cash, two vehicles, the “electronic devices used to perpetrate the fraud,” three guns and more than 100 oxycodone pills, according to the release.

Howard and Adams, both of Owensboro, are both charged with 20 counts of tampering with a motor vehicle or motor home odometer; first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance, first offense, greater than or equal to 10 dosage units of an unspecified drug, with a firearm enhancement; and having a prescription controlled substance not in its proper container, first offense.

They were taken to the Daviess County Detention Center.

The Owensboro Police Department said they believe there are more victims in the area, and they are still investigating.

The department’s traffic unit initiated the investigation and then called in federal and state law enforcement officers for help.